1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for establishing a self-owned and self-activated voice communication solution over a computer network such as the Internet for commerce and/or business use. An automated method enables a merchant to establish such a system easily and flexibly to replace a costly communication service such as the 800 number or 900 number services or the direct line services between two business branch offices.
2. Description of State of the Art
Internet has changed many business practices as well as stimulated many innovative applications. E-commerce is evolving into an environment whereby many new business applications and methodologies are being developed by exploiting new technologies and the powerful communications network capabilities. One of the new technologies being exploited is the voice over IP (Internet protocol) technology (VOIP). The principal advantage of VOIP with its digital packet transmission over IP network is that it allows easy integration of voice and data applications and it requires less bandwidth in carrying out voice communication compared to the conventional telephone service using the PSTN network. The desire to use VOIP for all voice communication has prompted a rush of many new services (different plans and fee structures from telephone companies and carriers such as AT&T, CLEC, etc) and the development of many new communication products (switches, routers and gateways from companies such as CISCO, Lucent, Intel, etc) based on the VOIP technology. These products are generally following the legacy telephone network practice by using proprietary switching and routing equipment to handle massive number of calls rather than allowing the pair of caller and receiver establishing a direct one-on-one connection using an open network such as the Internet.
Despite of a lot of investment, the new developments have not focused on the fundamental problem of providing the basic voice communication needs, especially for commerce and businesses, with a simple, easy-to-use and low-cost solution. Other than the Internet, many commercial networks appear to the consumer public as an extremely complicated infrastructure. Firstly, this complexity is reflected in the difficulties of implementing innovative and/or cost saving applications using the commercial network services. Only large corporations with adequate information system (IS) staff can contemplate network-based application involving integration of voice and data. Small business and merchants are totally at the mercy of the telecommunication service providers. Secondly, this complexity is further reflected in the complication of billing system and billing methods imposed on the consumers for voice communication services by the service providers. Small businesses and merchants have very little understanding of what is being offered. The advertising driven competitive fee for long distance service only created instability and poor quality of service for consumers. For example, the highly demanded 800 number service (now extended to 888, 877 and 866) is still very expensive to the consumer due to the complexity involved (network routing, termination and billing) in providing that service. Another example, the voice communications between global business branch offices is not only costly but also complicated involving too many companies offering and billing such services.
Although there are many patent applications for improving the VOIP technology and developing new products based on it, there is no specific invention dealing with the fundamental needs of the consumers (especially the small businesses)—a self-owned, self managed and low cost solution which allows the caller and the receiver to establish a communication channel directly and easily over the public networks to simply conduct a voice communication or to effectively assist a commerce transaction or business application.